Ask any Fulham fan who the worst manager in the club’s history is and 99% will say Felix Magath. Felix Magath took charge of Fulham on Valentines day in 2014 but his relationship with fans was anything but a loving one.

“The Cat” arrived in West London filling the entire fan base with optimism, a manager who had managed Bayern Munich only seven years prior, had never been relegated in his career and took a Wolfsburg side to the Bundesliga title in 2009 after being relegation threatened only two years before.

From a fans point of view Magath was an awful manager with Fulham fan and host of the Cottage Talk podcast Russ Goldman saying:

“I guess ownership saw Magath as someone who could save them as he had done it before in Germany. Well, the rest of the season was a disaster and for me, bringing in a manager from the outside in Germany that late in the season was a mistake.

As a manager he was highly unpredictable with his lineups, many supporters called it “Felix Bingo”. There was no consistency to what he was trying to do and ultimately he failed in the next season.

Having him return for that next season was a mistake; as he had no clue what it took to win in the Championship. His inexperience and arrogance I feel was his ultimate downfall at Fulham.”

In many Fulham fans opinions Magath was clueless and not cut out to manage in English football. It is clear to see why as he took the club down from the Premier League and then to the bottom of the Championship just a few months later. However, from certain personnel inside the club Magath was not seen as all that bad. Former Fulham midfielder and scorer of The Whites’ last Premier League goal Chris David was full of praise for the German saying “He is one of the best managers I have had up until now.” Adding

“I think he was a good manager. Direct and honest with the players. I enjoyed working with him.”

Chris David says that he had the best time of his career under Magath getting a good run in the Fulham first team. However, as Russ Goldman said the inclusion of the likes of Chris David began a time of unpredictability known as “Felix bingo.” Where players who were relative unknowns were signed and played in games they were not ready for.

Magath had inherited a poor aging squad in the Premier League with Fulham bottom of the league and 5 points adrift from safety when he was appointed. Dubbed “The last dictator in Europe.” Due to his rigorous training regimes which included running up mountains during his time at Wolfsburg. There are even stories of players collapsing with Brazillian striker Grafite having to be carried down a mountain on a stretcher. Say what you will about forcing a player to collapse in training, Grafite scored 28 goals in 25 league games that season finishing as the leagues’ top scorer ahead of his striker partner Edin Dzeko who was in second.

Why didn’t his techniques work in England, according to Chris David he applied a similar training technique he says “The training was hard, but good. There was a lot of running to make us fit. And tactical training as well. It was a different type of training than what all the players were used to.” Whereas Steve Sidwell has conflicting stories saying that the training was awful and that he would make them stand still for 40 minutes during sessions.

Perhaps the regime didn’t work at Fulham as the squad were too experienced. They had all worked under a plethora of managers who did things in a set way. Magath was unorthodox and the players didn’t buy into it as they were either lazy players such as Darren Bent and Kostas Mitroglou or experienced players who couldn’t buy into the philosophy such as John Arne Riise, Brede Hangelaand and Giorgios Karagounis.

The results speak for themselves and Felix Magath was maybe the worst fit for Fulham at the time of his arrival, but to call him a terrible manager with the track record he has would be ludicrous. When asked why it didn’t work out Chris David said: “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because he didn’t have a lot of time to build up the process he had in mind with us. In the Championship you saw that we had a very young talented team, but we needed a bit more time. Our pre-season was good, and in most of our games we played good football but we just didn’t get the results.”

Clearly Chris David bought into Magath’s style thus he played the best football of his career under his tutelage. The squad was young and talented as shown by players such as Moussa Dembele and Emerson Hyndman being huge successes since departing Craven Cottage. Would Magath have benefitted with some more time at Fulham as Chris David suggests? It’s hard to see a case for it, as he was such an abject failure picking up just one point in his seven games in charge in The Championship.

I’m sure a lot of clubs have their equivalent of “Fulhamish” phrases such as “Lads it’s Tottenham” and “Same old Arsenal” come to mind. Fulhamish is an adjective that describes something bad happening to a football team in a comedic way, something that has plagued Fulham FC for years prior.

Watching Jermain Defoe pocket £100,000 a week for Bournemouth aged 35 really gets me annoyed. It really is understated how bad of a signing a 35-year-old Jermain Defoe was for Bournemouth on a three-year deal. Even though it was a free transfer 100 grand a week for three years is still paying 15 million pounds for a man who will be 38 at the end of his current deal. It did get me thinking however, what are the worst free transfers of all time and where does Defoe place on that list? Here are the top ten worst free transfers of all time.

How does Ryan Sessegnon shape up against Gareth Bale? It makes for good reading for Fulham Fans #FFC

Ryan Sessegnon is the name that seems to be on everybody’s mind in recent weeks. Becoming the youngest player to win a PFA Player Of The Month Award since the man he is compared most to. Gareth Bale.

But how does Sessegnon in this early stage in his career shape up against Gareth Bale? The career of the youngster is comparable to the Welshman’s with both men starting out as a left back and eventually making the move further up the pitch to become wingers. Gareth Bale started his career at Southampton but it was at Spurs where he began to move further up the pitch. In this article, we will compare both how Gareth Bale performed at Ryan Sessegnon’s age and how both players have performed when they started to play further up the pitch.

Sessegnon has been in rich goalscoring form this season hitting 12 in 33 Championship games. However, when Gareth Bale was Ryan Sessegnon’s age he hit only five in 40 in the league during his time at Southampton. Comparing Bale and Sess aged 17 is tough because Bale didn’t make the move forward until his early twenties whereas Sessegnon has already begun to make that move further up the pitch.

As you can see Sessegnon’s move to left wing this season has helped him eclipse Gareth Bale in terms of scoring with Sessegnon scoring at a rate of 0.28 goals per game with Bale hitting the back of the net at a rate of 0.108 goals per game. However, when it comes to assists Bale has Sess beat. Sessegnon is usually the one on the end of a cross rather than the one providing it with his attacking positioning being one of his best attributes.

When you compare the two players on the wing it is tough as you have to take into account the fact that Bale was playing in the Premier League and Champions League whereas Ryan Sessegnon is only playing in The Championship. Of course, everyone remembers Gareth Bale’s game against Inter where he showed up on the world scene making one of the Worlds best right backs look like a Sunday league player Beating Maicon again and again. Sessegnon is yet to play against top opposition so it is tough to compare him to Bale in this early stage in his career. For a better insight, the following comparison will only take into account Gareth Bale’s first few seasons playing as a winger.

The stats really are staggering. With Sessengon scoring the same number of goals in half the time. Then again Bale’s hat trick was against Inter Milan and Ryan Sessegnon’s was against Sheffield United. Sessegnon’s minutes per goal whilst playing on the wing is unbelievable, scoring every 144 minutes at any level is spectacular nevermind as a 17 year old.

The sky is the limit for Ryan Sessegnon but when you compare his numbers to Gareth Bale it really puts it into perspective what a talent Fulham may have on their hands.

Guiseley have been without a manager for almost three weeks now and the hunt for a new gaffer has not been easy. A name that has been thrown around a lot in recent weeks is Billy Heath who is looking for a job after parting ways with FC Halifax Town last month.

Icelandic midfielder Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson has been making a name for himself this season. If like me you have Fulham’s Twitter on notifications you will surely have seen that Thorsteinsson has been on fire this season. Scoring 7 in 21 from midfield the 19 year-old has aspirations of reaching the first team in the coming years.

In the past 24 hours it has been confirmed by multiple news outlets that Stefano Okaka may be returning to Craven Cottage 8 years after his first loan spell.

There is a serious interest from Fulham however, there is a stumbling block that may force The Whites to look elsewhere. Watford are asking for a £2m loan fee for Okaka.

£2m for a 6 month loan seems very steep although, it is a risk that may pay off if the Italian forward can fire Fulham to the Premier League. Fulham are currently only 5 points away from 2nd place in The Championship.

They are also the 2nd highest scorers in the league trailing only Wolves however goals from their strikers have been hard to come by. Aboubakar Kamara has hit good form recently however his goal tally stands at only seven for the season. Summer signing Rui Fonte has fared even worse scoring only three during this campaign.

It is clear to see why Fulham want to bolster their attack as Wednesday’s deadline approaches. Will Fulham pay £2m to have a striker for 6 months? If history is anything to go by then yes. In January 2012 Fulham paid £4m to sign Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak on a 6 month contract. Pogrebnyak had a great half season at Fulham but moved to Reading when his contract was up in the summer.

Stefano Okaka has played for Fulham before in 2010 he joined on loan playing 11 games and scoring twice.